Reinventing Conservation Easements

General Information

Conservation easements are tremendously popular tools for

land protection across the United States and can be essential components of a smart growth strategy.  But what makes an easement program successful? 

In this course, four national experts will give an overview

of the nuts and bolts of developing an easement program and provide an up-to-date analysis of the implications of recent IRS rulings on the future of easements.  

Lively case studies will illustrate both successes and scandals, with a stress on how innovative approaches can conserve land effectively and serve the long-term public interest.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear four of

America's cutting-edge thinkers propose ideas on how to reform easement programs!

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• Planners
• Land trust managers
• Environmental advocates
• Elected officials
• Members of planning boards and civic organizations
• Conservation attorneys
  

TOPICS COVERED

THURSDAY

Introduction to Conservation Easement Nuts and Bolts

Structuring easements; easement administration (record-keeping, monitoring and enforcement); incorporating easements into land use planning.

National and Regional Trends

Best Practices

FRIDAY

Reinventing Conservation Easements

Reform approaches to: public benefit; conservation purpose; easement quality and uniformity; tracking systems; stewardship; termination and amendment; taxation issues; and environmental justice.

Placing Conservation Easements in a Larger Legal and Political Context

How economics and land use regulation, including the takings issue, influences easements; regulations vs. easements - pros and cons; how land conservation tools can work together or can conflict.

COURSE INSTRUCTORS

TOM DANIELS

Tom Daniels is a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches Environmental Planning, Land Use Planning, Growth Management, and Land Preservation. He heads the new certificate program in Land Preservation.  For nine years, Tom managed the nationally-recognized farmland preservation program in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he now lives. Tom holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics, and is the co-author of Holding Our Ground: Protecting America’s Farms and Farmland.

JOHN D. ECHEVERRIA

John D. Echeverria is the Executive Director of the Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, which conducts research and education on legal and policy issues related to protection of the environment and conservation of natural resources.   He is the former General Counsel of the National Audubon Society, the former General Counsel and Conservation Director of American Rivers, Inc., and a graduate of the Yale Law School and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.  John has written extensively on the takings issue and other aspects of environmental and natural resource law.  He frequently represents state and local governments, environmental organizations, planning organizations and others in regulatory takings cases at all levels of the federal and state court systems. 

JEFF PIDOT

During his legal career, Jeff Pidot served in the Natural Resources Division of the Maine Attorney General’s Office, for the last seventeen years of which he was Division Chief. For three years in the 1980’s, Jeff was executive director of the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission. In 2004-5, Jeff was a visiting fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge MA, where the focus of his work was on conservation easement issues and reforms. Jeff is a board member and past president of the land trust that serves his region, has served on the boards of other environmental groups, and is currently a member of his city’s conservation commission and comprehensive planning committee. In 2007, he received the lifetime achievement award of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, that state’s largest environmental organization.

JESSE RICHARDSON,JR.

Jesse J. Richardson, Jr. is an Associate Professor in and  Program Chair of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech. Since 1998, he has taught courses in Urban Growth Management, Land Use Law, Principles of Real Estate, and Law of Critical Environmental Areas. His research focuses on land use law and environmental law issues with special emphasis in farmland protection, conservation easements, growth management, takings, and groundwater law.  He received a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics and a Masters of Science in Agricultural and Applied Economics from Virginia Tech. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is licensed to practice law in Virginia and West Virginia and was in private practice in his home town of Winchester, Virginia prior to joining the faculty at Virginia Tech.  In 1999 Jesse received the American Agricultural Law Association Award of Excellence for Professional Scholarship and in 2004 he received William E. Wine Award for a History of Teaching Excellence from Virginia Tech. He serves on the Virginia Farmland Preservation Task Force and the Virginia Water Policy Technical Advisory Committee.

ReGistration

The registration fee of $425 includes continental breakfast and coffee both days.

Participants will also receive a binder of course-related materials and a copy of Reinventing Conservation Easements: A Critical Examination and Ideas for Reform by Jeff Pidot.

Sign up by May 15 to avoid the $50 late fee!

ACCREDITATION

This course is eligible for 1.4 Virginia Tech CEU credits and may qualify for other types of professional education credit.

LOCATION AND LODGING

The course will be held at Virginia Tech’s Alexandria Center, located at 1021 Prince Street in Old Town Alexandria.

For directions and hotel information, please visit the Location & Lodging section on our Planning Academy site.

Photo Credit: Jeff Pidot